4 more arrested in Paris attacks

In Paris, French officials said Friday that a third body – that of a male – was found in the rubble of Wednesday’s predawn police raid in which Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks, was killed.

Abaaoud, who was killed in a police raid in Paris on Wednesday, had previously escaped from Europe to Syria and returned without being detected.

According to Reuters, police were originally tracking the female militant in an investigation surrounding drugs, but later used the phone number they were tracing to pinpoint Abaaoud.

But a police source said overnight the suicide bomber was in fact a man, not a woman, and had been standing next to the 26-year-old “blonde bomber”.

“The European cannot take more time”.

In the European Union, ministers agreed to rush through reforms to the passport-free Schengen zone to tighten the bloc’s borders, and Belgium put out its highest terror alert in its capital, warning of a “serious and imminent threat”.

The Paris Prosecutor’s Office earlier announced the raid had killed two people. Aitboulahcen and Abaaoud are both of Moroccan origin. Police later confirm that suspected mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud is also among the dead.

“I’m still reeling, because these are the neighborhoods where we young people go out a lot, places we know well”, said student Sophie Garcon as she looked at tributes left outside the Le Carillon bar, where gunmen sprayed automatic weapons fire.

“We must be implacable in our determination, we must speed up our action, otherwise Europe will lose its way”, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.

Contrary to initial reports based on information from prosecutors, she did not blow herself up, a police source said Friday, adding that the suicide bomber was instead thought to have been a second man. The 26-year-old is also believed to be the leader of a terror cell that was about to attack France’s Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Islamic State (IS) said it was behind the attacks – the worst in Europe since the 2004 Madrid bombings.

In response to the attacks, France has stepped up its airstrikes against the terrorist group at its homebase in Syria, and French military spokesman Col. Gilles Jaron said that military forces have destroyed 35 Islamic State targets in the region.

At least eight attackers targeted a series of restaurants and France’s national stadium during an worldwide match against Germany before three of them took scores of people hostage and then blew themselves up at the Bataclan theatre.

Four people were arrested inside the building and three others outside, including Bendaoud and a woman in his company.

The king of Morocco was on a visit to France on Thursday.

At present only non-EU nationals and migrants are systematically checked by police at the EU’s external borders.